This is the course blog for WRIT 1133, section 9, a first-year writing course at the University of Denver that focuses on rhetoric, research, and the cultures, histories, and geographies of the North American West.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Practice Works Cited Page

Please post a practice works cited page of five (or the equivalent) article-length schlolary sources here as a comment.

McCarthy, Partrick. “The Mountain Man and American Anguish: The Telewestern, the Scapegoat Complex, and the Extreme West.” Journal of Popular Film and Television v. 24 (Winter 1997): 165-76. EBSCOhost. Web. 19 April. 2010.

Utley, Robert M. A Life Wild and Perilous: Mountain Men and Their Paths to the Pacific. New York: Henry Holt Publishers, 1997. Print.

Boyer, LaNada. “Growing Up in E’Da How – One Idaho Girlhood”. The Schooling of Native America. Ed. Thomas Thompson. American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education: Washington D.C., 1978. Print.

Burgess, Marianna. “From Stiya: or, a Carlisle Indian Girl at Home”. Children of the Dragonfly Native American Voices on Child Custody and Education. Ed. Margret Connell Szasz. The University of Arizona Press: Tucson, 2001. Print.

Havighurest, Robert. The Education of Indian children and youth; summary report and recommendations. University of Chicago: Chicago, 1970. Print.

Works CitedBuscombe, Edward. The Searchers. London: British Film Institution, 2000. Print.The Searchers in a book discussing the great influence and impact the film The Searchers which was released in 1956. The book talks about how the film is rated in the top 50 films made of all time. Its impact has been immense by influencing great directors throughout history including Martin Scorsese. The combination of John Ford and John Wayne helped make the film as influential as it is on film. The book begins by going through the opening scene of the film and stating that Ethan was the first word stated by a character in the film. However, the first few words in the film were actually in the form of a song that describes the main character in The Searchers known as Ethan Edwards.The book continues by analyzing different scenes in the film and describing their significance to the film industry and to John Ford himself. The book gives a lot of credibility to John Ford and John Wayne by talking about their background and how long they have worked together and were in the business.John Ford states that the significance of the film has to deal with race and Indians in early western films. He states that, “The audience likes to see Indians get killed. They don’t consider them as human beings – with a great culture of their own – quite different from ours.” Through the character of Ethan, John Ford exemplifies him as a racist, but also allows the audience to feel sorry for him. This gives the film complexity and depth.

Darby, William. John Ford’s Westerns: A Thematic Analysis, with a Filmography. Jefferson, Jefferson: McFarland & Company Inc. Publishers, 1996. Print. The book talks about and gives a detailed analysis to the filmography of John Ford as a whole. There are specific pages that discuss different aspects of the film The Searchers. One of the major topics that the book talks about is the concept of time in The Searchers. The book talks about how the film starts out stating that it takes place in Texas in 1868. This gives the audience a starting point to base the passage of time throughout the film on. Times moves very fast at some points in the film and moves very slow during other parts. However, the most significant thing about time in the film is that the search for Debbie took five years. The book continues by talking about how the character of Ethan Edwards is known as a wanderer because of his racism and vengeance. The film ends with the doors of his only family’s house closing on him as he walks out into the wilderness to wander. “The central characters’ journey through time and terrain ends with Ethan remaining as much of an intruder within society as he was when he first arrived at his brother’s ranch.” (219)

Cantor, Paul A. “The Western and Western Drama: John Ford’s The Searchers and the Oresteia.” Print the Legend: Politics, Culture, and Civic Virtue in the Films of John Ford. Sidney A. Pearson Jr. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2009. Pgs. 101- 131. Print. The Western and Western Drama: John Ford’s The Searchers and the Oresteia is an essay that compares John Ford’s great film, The Searchers to the Oresteia, which is a Greek trilogy written by Aeschylus. The essay starts out discussing the how well-known The Searchers is by saying that it is “frequently described as epic and tragic.” The essay states that revenge was a very evident theme in the tragedies of Oresteia and is as stated, “… a perennially popular subject on both epic and tragedy.” The essay continues by discussing the three-part play of the Oresteia and how aspects of the story coincide with the tragic story of The Searchers. The Oresteia like The Searchers is about getting revenge for family members. In the plays Orestes, the son of Agamemnon wants to get revenge for the murder of his father by his mother Clytemnestra. The Godfather and The Godfather Part II are both talked about in the essay as well and are defined as “perhaps the two greatest movies of all time…” They are compared to both The Searchers and the Oresteia as a film about revenge tragedy that can operate on an intellectual as well as an emotional level.” These two pieces of work are also similar in the way Aeschylus and Ford decide to end their stories. Both The Searchers and the Oresteia end “happily.” However, there are still aspects of both of the films that do not leave the audience in a happy mood.

Henderson, Brian. “The Searchers: An American Dilemma.” The Searchers: John Ford’s Classic Western. Kckstein, Arthur M. and Lehman, Peter. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2004. Pgs. 47-73. Print. The essay written by Brian Henderson talks about vast impact The Searchers has had on the history of film. It talks about how the film has influenced many films including Hardcore, Taxi Driver, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Dillinger, Mean Streets, Big Wednesday, The Deer Hunter, The Wind and the Lion, Ulzana’s Raid, and Star Wars among others. It discusses how the theme of searching for someone and vengeance have helped sculpt each of these plots. Specifically in the films, Taxi Driver, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Deer Hunter, and Hardcore have been classified as very similar. “In each, an obsessed man searches for someone—a woman, a child, a best friend—who has fallen into the clutches of an alien people.” (47) The article also talks about how the film is centered around Ethan’s character and the journey that he takes. His racism and quest for vengeance is exemplified in some of the earlier scenes in the film. His rejection of his nephew Martin Pawley because he is one-eighth Cherokee Indian is one example that shows racism. The article develops this idea even more by talking about how Ethan gave Martin Pawley a hard time throughout the film.

Dagle, Joan. “Linear Patterns and Ethnic Encounters in the Ford Western.” John Ford Made Westerns. Studlar, Gaylyn and Bernstein, Matthew. Bloomington: Indian University Press, 2001. Pages 102-131. Print. The entire book discusses numerous aspects of and analysis of the films of John Ford. However, the article, “Linear Patterns and Ethnic Encounters in the Ford Western” talks about his films and the entirety of the American West genre and how there are common themes that can be found in all of these films. “John Ford’s Westerns, like all films in the genre, are informed by a paradigmatic American narrative: the story of the settlers’ movement from East to West.” The article continues talking about the role of Indians in western films and specifically focuses on the interaction between Ethan and Chief Scar in The Searchers. Ethan and Chief Scar are portrayed as mirror images of each other with hatred and anger leading them to vengeance. One scene is analyzed very closely and discusses the first confrontation that Ethan and Chief Scar have and their hatred for the other’s race. “This wordless ‘confrontation’ is followed by a longer shot as Figueroa steps between Ethan and Scar to begin his translation-mediation. However, Ethan interrupts, walks up close to Scar and addresses him, insultingly, in English.” (123) this is analyzed in detail stating that both Ethan and Scar had may have had sexual relations with the other man’s race resulting in them knowing each other’s language very well.